


Herald in Scarlet

by Flamepixie20



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Genderswap, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Jealous Klaus Mikaelson, Klaus Mikaelson Has A Heart, Magic, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Multi, One-Sided Attraction, Possessive Klaus Mikaelson, Protective Klaus Mikaelson, Reincarnation, Sex, Stuff happens, Unrequited Love, Vampires, Violence, Werewolves, Witches, femharry, genderbent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2019-07-11 12:50:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15972656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flamepixie20/pseuds/Flamepixie20
Summary: Caleana Gilbert has a secret. More than one, actually. When Elena invites vampires into their home, she has no idea of the destruction that will follow. But Cali does and she will do anything to keep her family safe, even if it means sharing some of those secrets. Then, there is Nik, the suave and charming art tutor, who isn't all he says he is and Damon, the older brother of her sister's boyfriend. Both are vampires. Both are dangerous. Both leave Cali reeling. Battling fate, vampires, family and love... what's the former girl-who-lived to do?





	1. Pilot Part One

**Author's Note:**

> I'm alive! So, my laptop broke thanks to my mum and a glass of malibu and coke. I now have a new computer, but unfortunately, I've lost all my notes for Between the Shadow and the Soul. I've written more chapters on it, they're on my memory stick, but I was just getting to the point where it would veer away from canon and into my own plot. Until I figure out where I was going with that story, here's a new one to feast your eyes upon. It's one I had written a while ago, I've gone over it a little, but I thought I'd share it with you guys. It mostly follows the plot for season one, so a lot of what happens will be similar, and then it starts to diverge in season two. I hope you enjoy it. Like I said, this is just to tie you, and me, over for a little while, whilst I figure out all the little plot bunnies on BtSatS

Greyson couldn’t help but watch his daughter with a concerned frown, despite the fact that she was perfectly happy right now, and he should be listening to Sheila. But how could he listen to the Bennett witch when his daughter was the reason they were sat in the elderly woman’s sitting room? Gods, this was just too much. He ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the strands with a frustrated anger. His baby girl remained oblivious to his worries, too concerned with getting the colours on her picture just right, and he wondered if she was drawing another picture of the future.

It began a few weeks ago, or rather, he noticed it a few weeks ago.

She’d come up to him, a picture grasped in her dainty hands, and he’d assumed it would be another rainbow or perhaps a butterfly, but it wasn’t. It was Jeremy, on the ground, his leg twisted something awful and the swing that the children often played on in the backyard lay broken beside him. ‘You should fix the swing, daddy,’ she told him quietly. ‘Otherwise Jer will get hurt. I don’t want to see him hurt.’

Only, he’d laughed it off. Dismissed it as a dream she’d had. Until Jeremy broke his leg thanks the rope snapping on the swing a few days later, and his daughter turned those vivid green orbs on him in accusation. Then he’d begun to notice how quiet she was. How advanced she was for her age. He’d begun to see the powers she displayed when they weren’t looking.  
Miranda would tell her she couldn’t have a cookie, yet, the moment her back was turned, one would float from the cupboard and into the girl’s hands. Her teacher would stop her answering questions meant for another child, and his hair would miraculously turn another colour. Tyler pushed Jeremy to the ground one day and she retaliated by turning the hose on him, despite the fact it was wrapped up thirty feet from where she stood.

The realisation that his girl was a witch brought him to Sheila.

‘Do you think Elena is like her?’ he found himself asking, finally turning from the girl when he saw that what she was drawing was just a harmless cat.

‘No,’ Sheila shook her head. ‘Cali’s magic is different. She’s a witch, but I’ve no idea what kind. If Elena isn’t displaying the same powers, then she hasn’t got magic in her blood.’

‘Can you train Cali?’ he asked. ‘Teach her to control it.’

‘Sweetie,’ Sheila laughed. ‘She already is controlling it. I’ve never seen such perfect control in one so young. But then I’ve never seen her magic before.’

‘What do you mean?’ he asked, both curious and afraid of the answer.

‘Magic comes from nature,’ she told him sagely, ‘those who wield its power are servants of nature. There are laws which we abide by. There are those who turn to darker arts. But even that magic comes from nature, albeit the dark side of it. What I’m saying is that our power is, for the lack of a better word, borrowed. Even those who turn to darkness have limits.’

‘And Cali’s magic is dark?’ he ventured.

‘Not at all,’ Sheila shook her head. ‘I’ve never felt magic so pure before. Her magic doesn’t come from nature. It comes from her. It’s inside of her. It is her.’

Suddenly, he felt a lot older than he was. ‘What does this mean? Is she in danger?’

Sheila gave him a benevolent smile. ‘She’s a veritable source of infinite power. It’s crazy to expect that kind of magic will go unnoticed her whole life.’

‘So, what do we do?’ Greyson asked. ‘I can’t lock her up her whole life.’

‘Right now, she controls her magic unconsciously through her desires, she might not even be aware she is magical. We tell her what she is and then we teach her to protect herself. We make her aware that the world isn’t just filled with humans.’

‘You want me to tell her about vampires?’ That shocked him and he was filled with hesitance and doubt. ‘She’s a kid.’  
‘She’s a kid that’s basically a deluxe happy meal to those blood suckers,’ Sheila deadpanned. ‘Witch blood is a delicacy to vampires. Cali’s blood would be pure ichor.’

Training her to fight was a unanimous decision after that. No matter how much he wanted to keep his daughter an innocent princess, Sheila had made it clear that was simply impossible. Though vampires no longer lived in Mystic Falls, there was no guarantee that one wouldn’t pass through, that word of his daughter’s unique abilities would not get out.

He worked out a schedule with Sheila for Caleana’s tutoring.

Two evenings a week, she would be taught about magic, the rest of the time would be spent learning martial arts from a professional and how to kill vampires from him.

And so it began.

* * *

‘Huh,’ she mused as she stared at the classically handsome face that watched her from the page of her sketchbook. His dark hair was almost bronze in colour and stuck up from a broad forehead, an angular jaw and deep-set green eyes gave him a brooding Mr Darcy feel, but his smile was warm and welcoming. He wasn’t familiar to her in this life or her past life. A vision then. But what did it mean? She traced the shape of his smile with a thoughtful frown. ‘Who are you?’ she whispered.

Frustration filled her when the question went unanswered. It was all well and good seeing the future, but when it was as vague as a person’s face, its meaning remained undetermined until the person showed up. Was this guy friend or foe? She knew nothing about him but the knowledge that he would mean something in her future was almost firmly cemented in her mind. She just hated the not knowing part.

Patience, she told herself. All will be revealed in time, you just have to let it come. The voice sounded suspiciously like Sheila’s and Cali hated it. Her visions were usually warnings. Good or bad. They were a sign of changes. This stranger she’d drawn was the mark of a new beginning.

‘Can I see?’ Elena asked from the doorway, leaning against the frame with a hesitant smile on her face. She was dressed and ready to go but the black stain on her fingertips told Cali she’d been writing in her diary again.

‘Not this one, El,’ she answered softly, closing the sketchbook and tossing it aside. Elena accepted the answer easily enough. It had always been that way, Cali would never pry into Elena’s diary and Elena would never see the pictures that Cali kept hidden, they would share only what they wanted shared. ‘But,’ she continued when Elena made to move on, no doubt heading down the stairs to ward off Aunt Jenna’s attempt at breakfast. ‘I drew this for you.’

It was a painstakingly beautiful image of their mother. She’d started it after the funeral and had only just finished it. The acrylic truly didn’t do Miranda Gilbert justice, but then, nothing would ever compare to the real thing. Cali had done her best to capture her mother in her best moments, the fond memories she had of her dancing around the island in the kitchen in her apron and singing into the whisk were all she had to cling to now. All they had left of a woman who gave them everything.

Elena took it with a breathless awe.

The frame that surrounded the drawing was a simple white in colour and needed no further embellishments to highlight the amazing drawing. Elena’s fingers traced their mum’s face and unshed tears shined in her beautiful doe-like eyes – the only difference between the two was their eyes, where Elena’s were a deep soulful brown hers were a vibrant green. ‘I don’t want to forget her,’ Elena whispered, so full of heartache and despair.

‘Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting,’ Cali said softly. ‘It just means that remembering won’t hurt as much as it does now.’

‘It’s why you drew mom and not dad, right?’ Elena looked up at her, a slight smile on her face.

‘I’ve drawn dad too,’ her favourite one was him at his desk, asleep, with his hand still poised on the paperwork he’d been doing beforehand. ‘But she was your favourite just as he was mine.’

‘Daddy’s girl,’ Elena accused with no bite.

‘Momma’s girl,’ she returned right back at her twin.

Jenna was working herself into a right state when they entered the kitchen, looking around her in a haze, her mind working a mile a minute whilst trying to get herself and them ready. She’d been a life saver this summer, dropping everything in order to care for her sister’s orphaned children and Cali couldn’t be more grateful.

Jenna was nothing like the aunt she’d had before, when she had been the girl-who-lived, but that was a whole other world ago. Being reborn as the twin of Elena Gilbert had been the best thing that had happened to her. Despite the heartache that seemed to have followed her.

‘Toast,’ Jenna said suddenly, startling Cali out of her musings. ‘I can make toast.’

Elena rolled her eyes and Cali laughed.

‘It all about the coffee, Aunt Jenna,’ Elena told the red-head.

‘Or tea,’ she piped up, moving in the opposite direction of the coffee maker to the kettle to brew herself a to-go cup of tea.

‘I swear your half British,’ Elena joked not know how right she was on the matter.

Cali had been British once.

Jeremy stumbled into the room, bleary-eyed and looking as down as ever, he made his way to her and took the cup from her grasp. He took a sip and pulled a face. ‘Yuk,’ he muttered. ‘Is there coffee?’

She tutted under her breath. ‘You know I drink tea in the morning, Jer.’

‘I keep hoping that one day you’ll switch to a proper drink,’ he quipped with a slight smile.

Their parents’ deaths had hit Jeremy the hardest and while Cali and Elena had turned to the creative arts for escape, he had turned to drugs. Now he was a stoner who cared about nothing more than his next fix. It was sad to see him like this but, unlike Elena who judged him harshly for it, she gave him the time he so obviously needed to sort through his problems.

‘You’re first day of school and I’m totally unprepared,’ Jenna fretted on, oblivious to the fact that no one was listening to her.

‘Lunch money?’ she asked them all.

‘I’m good,’ Elena said.

Cali shook her head, she was all set too, and Jeremy just ignored Jenna completely and poured himself a cup of coffee. He took his black much to Cali’s disgust. The liquid was far too bitter for her liking, much preferring the sweetness of tea, or the milky goodness of a latte. Jenna’s fretting reached boiling point when she realised she was supposed to be at a meeting with her thesis advisor.

A subtle shift of her fingers had her magic reaching out to soothe Jenna’s panic and give her some semblance of normality. Now calm, Jenna was quick to high-tail it out of the house, none the wiser to the magic that had settled over her. None of them knew she had magic, that was strictly between her parents and Sheila.

Dad had never wanted her siblings to know, afraid it might put them in danger, or that one of them would slip. She would not destroy the promise she’d made him by blabbing now. It was best her siblings remain blissfully unaware of the dangers that lurked in the shadows.

A news story on the TV caught her eyes, a re-run of that morning’s headlines, and two people caught her attention. Two people whose faces were currently in the pages of her sketchbook, she hadn’t known them at the time, and now she knew she never would. But at least she had names to go along with the sketches. Brooke and Darren had gone missing.

They would never be found. She’d watched them get torn apart by a vampire in a vision, their only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and an uncomfortable feeling churned in her stomach. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Not when the face of that strange man would not leave her mind, nor the feeling that something epic was about to begin. It was like she was standing on a precipice just waiting to fall and the anticipation was killing her.

‘You alright?’ Elena asked, looking between Cali and the TV screen, a concerned look on her face.

‘I’m fine,’ she shrugged it off. ‘Just a little nervous.’

Elena gave her an understanding smile that said the feelings were returned. Her twin was just as nervous as she was and that brought some relief to Cali. Being who she was, what she was, there was a constant fear that she was being abnormal, so it pleased her when others shared her feelings.

Bonnie came to pick them up not long after Jenna left.

‘So,’ Bonnie said, the amusement and slight indignation of her tone bemused Cali. ‘Grams is telling me I’m psychic. Our ancestors were from Salem, witches and all that, I know, crazy, but she’s going on and on about it. I’m like, put this woman in a home already! But then I started thinking, I predicted Obama and I predicted Heath Ledger, and I still think Florida will break off and turn into little resort islands.’

Cali smiled from the backseat. ‘Sheila is a wonderful woman, Bonnie. Full of knowledge and insights that others overlook. And this world is full of crazy things. Why can’t witches be real?’

‘Seriously?’ Bonnie questioned in surprise. ‘You buy into all that hoodoo voodoo nonsense?’

‘Some of it is utter garbage,’ Cali shrugged. ‘But Sheila knows her stuff.’

‘Right,’ Bonnie nodded. ‘She used to be your teacher. I forget about that. You’d spend every Sunday at her house.’

She nodded. ‘The lessons stopped when I was fourteen, but I still go round there every other week. Seriously, Bonnie,’ she leant forwards. ‘Listen to what she has to say.’

If Bonnie was a witch then that would mean she was someone who could share Cali’s secrets. It was hard being the only teenage witch in town. Sharing her magic, even though hers was different, would be an amazing relief.

‘What are you going on about?’ Elena asked, suddenly zoning into the conversation from la la land.

Cali shared a bemused smile with Bonnie. ‘I’m psychic now,’ she told Elena.

Elena grinned and nodded enthusiastically. ‘Right. Okay, then predict something about me.’

Bonnie screwed up her face in an exaggerated look of concentration, as though she could peer into the future if she squinted hard enough. ‘I see-’

She was cut off sharply when a crow hit the car, instinctually, she swerved. But the moment the panic was over, she pulled over to the side of the road. Bonnie was a good driver, she handled the hit with a cautious calm, but when your parents died in a car accident, the skill of the driver did not matter.

Cali watched her sister carefully as Bonnie checked her over.

Elena had been in the car when it drove off Wickery Bridge, she’d been in the backseat when their parents drowned. They’d gone to pick her up after she’d gone to a party and wanted to come home early. It had been family night but Elena had ditched and it had cost them their parents’ lives. Elena’s gaze caught hers in the rear-view mirror but she quickly looked away.

‘It’s okay.’ Elena muttered. ‘I’m fine.’

She was fine. But she shouldn’t have been. Elena should have died that night in the accident. Perhaps that was the start of the change Cali’s visions had been foreshadowing, and this stranger in her sketchbook was a catalyst. But a catalyst for what? Eugh. The not knowing was truly a pain in the arse.

A flash of black caught the corner of her eye and she turned to see the crow sat upon a road sign. Signs usually came in threes. The picture, the missing couple, the crow. Something was coming. Cali was now a hundred percent certain of this.

‘Really,’ Elena was saying. ‘I can’t be freaked out by cars for the rest of my life.’

Bonnie nodded, a soft look appearing on her face in light of Elena’s attempt at bravery, and a smile lifted the worry from her eyes. ‘I predict this year is going to be kick ass. And I predict all the sad and dark time are over and you are going to be beyond happy.’

It was a nice sentiment and certainly lifted Elena’s spirits.

If only Cali felt the same. Call it a lingering effect from a past life spent constantly in danger, but she got the feeling the dark times had only just begun. Her instincts and her magic were telling her to be weary, and she wouldn’t have gotten so far in her previous life had she not listened. But she couldn’t tell Elena her worries. Her twin had gone through too much recently to add to her stressful plate.

When they got to school, she parted from her sister in favour of heading towards the art classroom. There weren’t many artistically inclined students at Mystic High, so aside from the regular handful, the art classroom was empty.

Maria waved at her as she entered and Cali was about to approach her when the teacher called out to her. She changed directions instead.

Mrs Keech was the only teacher who would willingly spend time with her students before school began. An elderly lady whose soul had yet to catch up with her age, she looked spry and energetic, despite the whiteness of her hair. There was always something lively about her, Cali could only imagine what she had been like in her youth, and it brought a smile to the witch’s face.

‘Cali, dear, I’ve been waiting for you,’ she seemed overly excited, like an energiser bunny that had too much caffeine.

‘How was your summer, Mrs Keech?’ she asked politely.

‘Fascinating,’ she breathed. ‘I went to this art gallery in Washington. Truly brilliant works on display. It’s what I want to talk to you about.’

Curious, she took a seat opposite the teacher’s desk, pulled her bag around to rest on her lap, and nodded slowly.

‘While I was there, I ran into an old friend of mine,’ her sudden wistful smile and reddened cheeks told Cali the kind of old friend this was. Though the woman laughed when she saw the naughty smirk tugging Cali’s lips upwards. ‘Nothing like that happened, dear. I’m too old for that kind of strenuous activity. Though in my heyday I could ride that man all night long.’

‘Mrs Keech!’ she did not need to imagery that came with the sentence.

‘Right, right,’ she waved a dismissive hand. ‘Back to the subject at hand. Anyway, this friend of mine was showcasing some his works and we got to talking. Naturally, you were brought up.’

‘Me?’ she asked, a sudden unease filling her.

‘Don’t look so worried,’ Mrs Keech chuckled. ‘I showed him your sketchbook.’

She pulled a familiar black sketchbook from her and guiltily handed it over. ‘So that’s where that went,’ she murmured thoughtfully.

‘You left it behind over the summer and I took it with me,’ Mrs Keech sounded apologetic. ‘I wanted to show some art directors your work.’

Instantly, a sour look appeared on Cali’s face.

‘Don’t give me that look, if you want to get anywhere in the art world, you need contacts,’ her tone shifted to the no-nonsense teacher. ‘Anyway, Nik wanted to look and I showed him.’

‘And?’ she prompted.

‘He wants to meet you,’ the glee was almost contagious. Almost. ‘Your work is spectacular for one so young and he’d like to see more.’

She bit her lip and frowned. It was hard not to feel slightly betrayed even though she knew Mrs Keech’s intentions were pure. It should have been her decision to show others her work.

‘He’s a brilliant artist, Cali,’ Mrs Keech prompted when she made no move to respond. ‘He can teach you so much about art that I can’t. And, he’s got money.’

She laughed. ‘What’s money got to do with it?’

‘He could be your benefactor,’ she grinned slyly. ‘A foot in the door of the art world and he could give you a full ride through college.’

Well that was food for thought. She wanted to go to college but the expense was crazy and she was reluctant to plunge herself into debt. But if she was given a full ride then there was no reason not to go.

‘There is no harm in meeting him. Hear what he has to say. Then make your decision,’ she told Cali, scribbling down a name and number on a piece of blank paper. ‘This is his contact information. He’s expecting your call so don’t keep him waiting for long.’  
This was Mrs Keech’s friend, she really had no choice but to call him, so she took the paper and slipped it inside her bag.

‘What was that about?’ Maria asked when she sat beside her.

‘Mrs Keech has an art friend interested in my stuff.’

‘That’s amazing!’ Maria said enthusiastically, but her delight faded as she took in Cali’s troubled look. ‘Why isn’t it amazing?’

‘I don’t know,’ she shrugged. It was a brilliant opportunity, she shouldn’t squander it because of nerves and doubt. ‘How was your summer?’

‘Boring,’ she rolled her eyes. ‘My folks took me up to Canada to visit my grandparents. A whole summer of them harping on about my future. Parents suck.’

Cali smiled bitterly at that and Maria quickly backtracked.

‘Oh,’ she stuttered. ‘I meant… I didn’t… shit, Cali, that was tactless.’

‘It’s fine,’ she reassured. ‘I can’t get all emotional whenever anyone bitches about their parents. Besides, I’ve met your parents and I know how suckish they are.’

Maria laughed and nodded. ‘Sorry,’ she added softly.

‘Don’t apologise,’ she shrugged it off, but the loneliness in her heart all but drowned her.

Dad would know what to do about this art thing. Mum would be all for her taking every opportunity she can sink her teeth into, but dad would be the logical one about it. He would have sat her down and talked through the pros and cons, made her realise that no matter her hesitance and cons, that she wanted to phone this guy. Like, right away. Gods, how she missed them.

It wasn’t fair that her parents were taken from her in this life too.

She sat with Maria for the next twenty minutes, absently doodling on a bit of paper, and listening to her friend talk of Canada. Until she finally stood and said her goodbyes. She should find Elena and see how she was doing. No doubt Caroline had said something vaguely insulting by now.

‘Oomph,’ she gasped as she walked through the doorway and into a broad chest, instantly she was accosted with a cold feeling. A feeling of death. Vampire.

A familiar vampire. The face she had spent that morning drawing stared down at her in mild confusion. Schooling her features to hide the shock and panic, she stared up at him and mirrored his confusion. He looked back the way he had come. ‘I just saw you… over there,’ he pointed behind him and frowned at her.

‘You saw Elena,’ she told him. ‘My twin sister. See,’ she pointed to her eyes. ‘Green eyes. Elena’s are brown. I’m Caleana.’ She held her hand out.

He took her hand, shaking it firmly. ‘Stefan,’ he told her.

Once again, she was accosted with the feeling of death and he felt her magic too, if the furrowing of his brow was anything to go by. Though he didn’t seem to recognise it for what it was, which was always a good sign, and she thanked her lucky stars that her magic was different. It gave the element of surprise.

‘It’s nice to meet you, Stefan,’ she smiled warmly.

Though he was a feature in her visions it didn’t necessarily mean he was a bad person, just that he was involved, and she was hesitant to judge him based on what he was. Though dad had tried to instil a stake first ask questions later motto when it came to vampires, she was just not that kind of a person. She knew first hand that just because there was a negative stigma associated with dark creatures didn’t mean the individual was evil.

‘Likewise,’ he returned, watching her curiously, as though she were an impossible enigma and she found the expression amusing. ‘Do you know where the history classroom is?’

‘Sure,’ she nodded, ‘that’s my first class. Elena’s too. So remember I’m the green-eyed twin and she’s the brown-eyed one.’

‘Right,’ he nodded, a smile tugging his lips upwards.

‘Feel free to start singing Brown-Eyed Girl when you look at her,’ she shrugged carelessly, hoping that he would. Elena would die of embarrassment. Stefan’s laughter was rich and full of genuine amusement.

‘I’m sure your sister would appreciate that.’

‘A pretty boy singing to her? Who wouldn’t love that?’ she snorted.

His laughter had died down into sporadic chuckles as they entered the history classroom. Elena and Bonnie shot her curious looks as she sat in her seat, the questions would have spilled from their lips had it not been for the fact that Tanner began the class. Instead, they burned with curiosity over the vampire.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket but she refused to look at it, hearing the subsequent huffs of her sister and friend only made her grin. It was cruel to tease them like this, but she had to get her fun somewhere and lording the information – scarce as it was – over them was too funny.

After class, she walked with Stefan to his next class before departing to her own, humming Brown-Eyed Girl as she went much to the vampire’s delight. He wasn’t a bad person, she soon realised, but there was a darkness within him. A shadow that haunted him. Cali was reserving judgement until she found out more about him but she had a feeling she would like him. Perhaps this change would be a good one like Bonnie had jokingly predicted and she was just reading too much into it.

‘You should call this guy,’ Jeremy muttered later that day.

They were at the Grill, celebrating the fact they made it through the first day back without strangling anyone, when she’d brought up that morning’s conversation with her art teacher. She was still undecided.

‘What if he turns out to be a complete creep?’ she asked.

‘You have a black belt in martial arts,’ Jeremy deadpanned. ‘Just kick his ass.’

She laughed and shook her head. ‘Your concern for me is touching, Jer.’

He grinned at her before something caught his gaze and he scowled. She followed his gaze to watch Vicki Donovan serving Matt and Tyler and grimaced. Vicki was a mess she didn’t want her brother involved in, she was clearly in love with Tyler, whilst he was only interested in one thing, and Jeremy didn’t need to be led on by her. Not when she was just using him for drugs.

‘Jer,’ she began cautiously but he cut her off.

‘Don’t,’ he warned.

‘Fine,’ she held her hands up. ‘I will spare you the Elena-esque lecture. But I know you can do better than her. She’s not good for you and, right now, you need someone that is.’

He glared at her but she remained impassive to the look and he quickly sighed and ran a hand over his face. ‘I care about her,’ he murmured. ‘And I hate the way she lets Tyler use her.’

‘Some girls don’t want a knight in shining armour,’ she shrugged.

‘Some girls just don’t know that they want a knight in shining armour,’ he returned.

‘Touché,’ she laughed.

He stood from the table and took a few steps towards Vicki, he paused for a moment before turning back to face her. ‘Call this guy,’ he said firmly. ‘Go be some bigshot artist that I can brag about to my friends.’

It warmed her to know that even in his drug-fuelled depression, he still cared about her enough to want her to achieve her dreams. It told her that her brother was still there. Hidden but there.

‘His name is Stefan Salvatore,’ Carline said as she slid into the booth, stealing one of Cali’s fries as she did. ‘He lives with his uncle up at the old Salvatore Boarding House. He hasn’t lived here since he was a kid. Military family, so they moved around a lot. He’s a Gemini, and his favourite colour is blue.’

‘I know,’ Cali responded with a grin.

‘What?’ Caroline said in shock.

‘Cali met him at school,’ Bonnie told the blonde. ‘They spent lunch together.’

‘I appointed myself as his personal tour guide,’ she shrugged. ‘He’s pretty funny. And his favourite colour is actually green.’

‘Whatever,’ Caroline rolled her eyes, threw her hair over her shoulder and did her best to look unimpressed. Though the envy shined in her blue eyes. ‘We’re planning a June wedding.’

It wasn’t that she didn’t get along with Caroline, it was just that the girl was so pretentious and arrogant that it was hard to be around her for too long. She reminded Cali of a female version of Draco Malfoy. ‘I’m sure Stefan will enjoy that,’ she drawled. ‘He seems like a spring-summer person.’

‘He does,’ Caroline tittered happily. ‘Doesn’t he?’

It would disappoint her to know that Stefan was interested in Elena. Through the tour, he kept asking subtle questions about her sister, claiming to be fascinated by the whole twin dynamic, and she hadn’t minded. It would be good for Elena. She smiled and excused herself from the table.

She had a phone call to make.

The paper trembled slightly in her hands as she contemplated the number scrawled on it. Potentially, she could be holding her future in her hands right now. Her benefactor, Mrs Keech had said. A full ride through college. It would be stupid to pass up on this opportunity. She dialled the number and pressed the phone to her ear.

He picked up on the third ring and whatever she was expecting, it wasn’t the suave, slightly husky, British voice that floated down the phone. ‘Hello.’

Short and sweet, but the greeting sent a spiral of butterflies up her stomach and throat. This would have been so much easier had he not picked up, she would have left a voicemail message and he would have had to call her back. ‘Ah. Hi,’ dammit, what did she say. ‘is this mister,’ she paused to double check the name on the paper. ‘Ah, Mikaelson?’

She should just put the phone down and call it a badly done job. Nothing was worth the anxiety crawling through her.

‘It is,’ came the confident, if slightly amused answer, ‘may I ask who is calling?’

‘Oh, right,’ she stuttered and mentally slapped herself. ‘My name is Caleana Gilbert, I think you know my teacher. Connie Keech.’

‘Ah,’ he seemed to understand who she was now. ‘The budding art student.’

‘I guess that’s me,’ she laughed nervously. ‘I’m not calling at a bad time, am I?’

‘Not at all, love,’ he charmed. ‘Though I expected your call a lot sooner.’

‘I only just got your number today,’ she quickly explained. ‘It’s the first day back at school.’

‘Ah, yes, you’re in high school,’ he stated.

‘Yeah,’ she answered even though it wasn’t phrased as a question, and conversation dwindled. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said after a long pause. ‘I’ve no idea what I’m supposed to say. Mrs Keech just gave me your number and told me call because you’re interested in me. Not me as in me, me. You like my stuff. My art! You liked my art. I promise I’m not usually this stupid. I’m just really nervous. I mean, you sound a lot younger than what I was expecting, especially considering Mrs Keech told me she used to ride you all night long.’

_Dear Merlin_ , she prayed once her words caught up with her brain, _kill me now_. Embarrassment flooded her entire being and she was sure she was doing a spot-on impression of a tomato right about now. She should have planned what she was going to say.

His laughter was sharp and rich, full of amusement. ‘Not quite all night, love,’ he revealed.

A pitiful noise left her reminiscent of a wounded dog and she pressed her hand against her flaming cheeks. ‘I-I didn’t mean to say that,’ could she use her magic to open up the ground so it could swallow her whole? She’d never tried before. Now seemed as good a time as any. ‘I-I’m j-just going to hang up and pretend this phone call never happened. Sorry to bother you.’

She was an idiot. A first-class moron. Forget being a powerful witch, she could barely handle a conversation with a stranger.

‘Wait, love!’ the man called just as she was about to hang up. ‘Nervous rambling aside, I really am interested in your artwork.’

‘You are?’ she asked shyly when she pulled the phone back up to her ear.

‘Yes, it’s rare to see such raw talent nowadays,’ he praised and she was suddenly blushing because of a whole new reason. ‘I’d like to see that talent grow.’

She smiled and slid onto one of the metal benches that lined the quad. ‘You really think I’m good?’

‘I enjoyed looking through your sketchbook,’ he told her. ‘There is passion behind your drawings, a care that most teenagers lack, and it’s intriguing. The one of the woman surrounded by lilies was particularly striking.’

‘It’s one of my favourites,’ she confessed quietly. ‘I’ve drawn it on a larger scale too, though that one is in colour.’

‘I’d like to see it. In fact, I’d like to see more of your work.’

Excitement had replaced the nervous butterflies. ‘Seriously?’ she could barely contain the eagerness. ‘I can put together a portfolio and we can meet up somewhere to discuss it. I’m all for constructive criticism.’

‘You’re rather eager,’ he teased.

Instantly, she deflated. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered. ‘We don’t have to meet up or anything.’

‘No, no, don’t apologise, sweetheart,’ he quickly amended. ‘I find it refreshing. I would like to meet the artist behind that striking portrait.’

‘I’m free most weekends,’ she told him. ‘But I can’t travel out of the state.’

‘That’s fine, love,’ he told her. ‘I can come to you.’

Part of her said it wasn’t a good idea to meet a stranger, but this was Mrs Keech’s friend and she trusted her teacher. She would trust this man too. ‘There’s a café in Richmond that my dad used to take me to,’ she ventured shyly. ‘We could meet there.’

He quickly agreed and she gave him the name of the café with the promise to meet up next weekend. They talked for a little while about art, discussing the benefits of different mediums, before she finally said goodnight. By the end of the conversation, he’d told her to call him Nik and to text him anytime if she had a query about art. It felt nice to have someone to talk to that was as into the subject as she was.

Maria enjoyed art, but it was only a hobby to her, Elena preferred literature and Jeremy just drew casually. None of her other friends were into it either. She had a feeling that her interactions with Nik were going to be both fun and educational. Next weekend couldn’t come soon enough.


	2. Pilot Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which visions are a pain, the future is unclear, Cali decides to trust Stefan, Elena is the centre of it all, and Klaus needs to go find a cheerleader.

Tanner was droning on and on about history and while Cali usually did her best to pay attention – there was no way she was half-arsing her way through her education this time around – her mind just wasn’t in the room. Beneath her steadily moving hand was a dense cropping of trees, their biro leaves looked malicious, and their trunks grew so close together there was little white of the paper to be seen between them.

‘The Battle of Willow Creek,’ Tanner was saying, ‘took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls. How many casualties resulted in this battle? Miss Bennett?’

Cali didn’t hear Bonnie’s response, she was no longer in the room, instead she was in the trees she’d drawn. The moonlight barely penetrated the treeline and she stumbled over some roots as she tried to get her footing. Her hand reached out to grasp the nearest trunk, steadying herself and giving her a much-needed moment to orientate from the sudden shift from her history lesson to the woods.

Daytime visions were the worst, while her body still sat in the classroom, her mind was thrown elsewhere, quite literally. When she slept, her mind was at peace and the transition from dream to vision was smooth and almost seamless. But the fact it had come during the day, that she had been pulled inside of a vision moments after drawing one of the aspects of it, told her this was going to happen in the near-future.

The muted sounds of chatter and the discarded red plastic cups told her it was going to happen that night. During the back to school bonfire. She was almost certain of it. The moment she gathered the when and where, the vision started to fade, overlapping with the classroom. The last vestiges of the trees clung to her classroom, an air of malice hung in the air, and behind Tanner a figure melted from the shadows. Piercing blue eyes met hers, before they turned red, and lunged for her history teacher. A woman in a period dress ran through the tables bearing a face just like Elena’s, a mocha skinned woman watched her from the corner, a finger pressed to her lips before they lingered on a shining yellow amulet, and a black wolf slinked up the aisle to sit at her feet, its head nuzzling her thigh affectionately, despite the blood dripping from its maw. Then everything was consumed in fire and above the crackle of the flames she heard the triumphant howl of the wolf at her side.

Just like that, she was thrust back into the classroom, her heart pounding and it took every ounce of training her father had given her not to gasp out loud. The vision left her with a stunning migraine that left it hard to see anything, let alone worry about the vision.

She didn’t bother going to her next class, it took everything she had to leave Tanner’s and the school, she texted her sister to say she was going home and apparated over the Sheila’s the moment she was alone.

Apparating did nothing to clear the migraine throbbing in her head and when she appeared in Sheila’s living room, she crumbled to her knees, grasped her head in pain and cried out her agony. Instantly, Sheila was by her side, pressing a familiar potion into her hand. Once the pain reliever worked its magic, she was helped to the couch, and made to lay upon it.

‘One of these days you’re going to frighten me to death, girl,’ Sheila said quietly.

‘Sorry,’ she groaned. ‘I haven’t had a vision like that before and it just overwhelmed me.’

‘What did you see?’ Sheila asked.

‘A lot of things,’ she threw her arm over her eyes and prayed that none of it was real, that she would wake up and find her mum making pancakes downstairs, her dad guzzling down the coffee before leaving for work, Jer with his nose in a book and Elena agonising over Matt. But this wasn’t a dream, this was reality, and she was the super powered older sister of the Gilbert household. The protector.

‘You’ve been under a lot of stress recently,’ Sheila began in that soothing grandma tone of hers. ‘You’ve lost your parents _again_.’

Only Sheila knew the truth of her reincarnation, of the girl-who-lived, and the reason behind her strange magic. ‘What are you saying?’ she asked.

‘I’m saying that this vision might not be a vision at all,’ Sheila sighed. ‘It might just be your body telling you to slow down. You’ve never taken the time to just grieve, Cali. You’ve been too busy being the reliant sibling but you need time too.’

‘I know what I saw,’ she snapped, sitting up and fixing Sheila with a glare, her magic lashing out and shattering the glass lampshade beside the couch. Instantly, her anger cooled. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered when she caught sight of the shocked trepidation on Sheila’s face. Her magic was unknown, something Sheila feared, no matter how well she hid it, and Cali hated the reminder of her freakish abilities. Still, she waved her hand the pieces of colourful glass flew back together as though it had never been broken in the first place.

‘Tell me what you saw,’ Sheila prompted masking the fear under the careful façade of the witch teacher Cali had grown up under the tutelage of.

‘I saw a girl who looked exactly like Elena,’ she began, ‘more so than even I. Wearing a dress from the nineteenth century. I saw my history teacher die. I saw the woods at tonight’s back to school party. I saw a wolf that knew me enough to sit at my feet and rest against me. And fire. I saw a burning ring of fire. There was a witch there too, but she didn’t feel part of the vision, more like she was the reason _behind_ the vision.’

‘That is troubling,’ Sheila frowned, leaning forwards to rest her arms against her knees. ‘The witch could be contacting you from the Other Side, with your connection to death and powerful magic, it is possible. She might be warning you of things to come.’

‘But I don’t understand it,’ Cali growled frustrated. ‘It’s all too fragmented and disjointed. I don’t know this doppelgänger of my sister’s or any wolves.’

‘But you will,’ Sheila said softly. ‘The very fact this witch showed them to you suggests that you will know them and that you need to be careful.’

‘There is something else,’ she broached slowly. ‘Vampires have returned to Mystic Falls.’

Sheila stiffened. ‘Have you killed it?’

‘No,’ she answered shortly before continuing quickly at Sheila’s angered scowl. ‘And until he gives me reason to, I won’t. I’m not a murderer, Sheila.’

‘Vampires are dangerous to our kind, Cali.’

‘I will not become a monster just to sate your vendetta against the vampires. That’s not who I am and I refuse to kill any vampire without just cause.’

It was an argument they’d had since her parents died, with Greyson’s death, Sheila had been adamant that she took more precaution in keeping herself safe. But Cali just wasn’t prepared to go in all guns blazing and Stefan seemed like a nice enough bloke. The vampire in her vision had blue eyes, not green-brown. Stefan wasn’t the killer. _But he might know who it is._

‘Promise me you will be careful,’ Sheila said eventually.

‘I always am,’ she responded. ‘Bonnie told me about your talk with her.’

‘She’s a stubborn one,’ Sheila laughed, happy for the distraction, and a venture into a more familiar topic. ‘Like her grandmother.’

‘You think she really has magic?’ Cali asked.

‘I do,’ Sheila nodded. ‘Bennett magic has always been strong especially amongst the women of our family. She’ll start showing signs of it soon, if she hasn’t already. I want you to help her.’

‘Me?’ she asked in surprise. ‘What can I do?’

‘You can be her friend,’ Sheila advised. ‘Being a witch is hard enough, but a newly minted teenage witch is even harder. She’s going to need someone to talk to about it. Someone who understands.’

‘I will look out for her regardless, you don’t even need to ask.’

She meant it. Bonnie was an incredible friend to both her and Elena, looking out for her as she came into her magical inheritance was the least she could do. Sheila nodded slowly, looking relieved, before it was replaced with a fierce sternness.

‘You stay out of this vampire business, okay?’ Sheila said. ‘I warned your daddy nothing good would come from them knowing about your magic. I’m warning you too. Keep your head down.’

‘I’ll try my best,’ she gave Sheila a tight smile. ‘But I will use my powers to defend myself and my family. I have a feeling I’m going to be using my magic a lot in the coming weeks. Whatever my vision means it’s only just the beginning.’

She left Sheila not long after.

Her vision of the woods had her on guard from the moment they arrived at the party, not an ounce of alcohol touched her lips, and instead of having fun with Bonnie and Elena, she was manning the treeline. The tension in her stomach knotted and writhed, her magic was a tight coil just ready to spring into action. Her gaze was ever watchful but keeping one eye on her siblings and another on her surroundings was taking its toll. She was stressed out.

‘Enjoy yourself,’ Elena laughed when she passed them by, pressing a red cup to her hand.

She spared her sister a smile and moved on, weaving through the crowd with ease, just waiting for something to happen. It was with torn emotions that she saw Stefan approaching Elena. While she had nothing against the vampire, the whole situation made her nervous, especially with the knowledge of this doppelgänger.

Her phone suddenly buzzed, distracting her from the party and she stepped further into the treeline, pulled the phone from her pocket. The sounds of the party lessened as she checked her messages. Surprise filled her when she saw who texted. It was Nik.

_What is your favourite medium to use?_

It was a happy surprise though and she smiled at the sight of it. Him reaching out to her was a sign of interest, that he was taking her art work seriously, and it made butterflies swarm into her stomach.

_I suppose it depends on the drawing itself and the canvas its placed upon. Though if I’m forced to choose, I do like my watercolours. Using spray paints is also fun._

She sent her reply, stepped over a root that had worked its way above ground, and cast her attention between her phone and her surroundings. This time extending her magic to search for any threats of the supernatural variety. Nik occupied her thoughts though and the more she thought about it, the more she realised that the two might be connected after all. He had to be supernatural, there was no way he could sound so young and have been in a relationship with the early 50’s teacher she adored. But there wasn’t a polite way of asking.

_There is a subtle beauty to water paints, I myself prefer the more vivid tones of acrylics and oils. And spray paints, love? Are we signing our names on abandoned buildings now?_

A chuckle escaped her at the obvious teasing. And it was cute that he included his little word quirks in his texting as well as his speech. She couldn’t wait to meet this guy and properly talk about art.

_I don’t graffiti, I merely use spray paints when the urge takes me for a quick yet colourful piece of artwork. Acrylics are fun, especially when layering. Why do you ask what my favourite is?_

She heard the sounds of arguing, some girl not wanting to make-out with her boyfriend or something, and disregarded it. Relationship problems weren’t her area of expertise. Her phone buzzed again.

_Would you believe that I’m bored?_

She rolled her eyes and typed out her reply.

_Because talking to a high-school girl is so much fun._

The rely was instantaneous this time.

_That’s the fantasy, isn’t it?_

Her laugh was sharp and short. Men, it seemed, were all the same at heart.

_I’m not your Lolita, Nik, go find some hapless cheerleader to seduce. I’ve got bigger problems to deal with._

It turns out relationship problems were her area, especially when they involved her brother squaring off with Tyler Lockwood over some drug-addicted whore. Tyler stormed past her, pausing only to give her a goofy grin and a once-over that was full of lustful desire. Her eyes rolled again. Tyler was so not her type, though he’d been determined to have her since her breasts developed. Her phone buzzed again.

‘Who are you texting?’ Tyler asked, his speech a little slurred, and with the way he swayed on his feet, he was drunk. Great. As if she didn’t have enough problems.

‘None of your business,’ she snapped, holding her phone to her chest. ‘Piss off, Tyler.’

‘Come on,’ he laughed. ‘Is it your boyfriend?’

‘I don’t have a boyfriend, Tyler,’ she said exasperatedly, looking behind him to Vicki and Jer just in time to see her brother walk off, looking angry and dejected.

‘I could be your boyfriend,’ he told her cockily.

‘When you’d screw anything that walks? No, thank you, I look for loyalty in my men.’ She shoved past him and followed her brother. ‘Jeremy!’ she called after him, jogging a little to catch-up.

‘I don’t want to hear it,’ he snarled, snatching a beer from the ice box.

She picked one up and joined him on a bench, sipping lightly at it, and waited for her brother to speak. In the meantime, she opened up her messages.

_Sorry to have bothered you. I’ll be sure to keep things strictly professional between us in future endeavours._

She didn’t have to hear him to know he’d taken offence to her words. Gods, she hadn’t even met the guy and already she was messing up her future. Quickly, she tapped out a response.

_I’m sorry. Can I blame my total bitchiness on teenage hormones, alcohol, and the agonising annoyance of younger siblings?_

‘Does it ever stop hurting?’ Jeremy asked and she knew they weren’t talking about Vicki.

‘No, it doesn’t,’ she answered honestly. ‘But it will get easier to bare.’

‘How are you so together?’ he snapped suddenly, downing his beer and throwing the bottle away. ‘I’ve never seen you grieve, not once! You haven’t even been to their graves since the funeral! Do you even care!?’

‘I do care!’ she shouted, suddenly furious at Jeremy’s words, disgusted by the very thought that he would think otherwise. In her anger, she downed her beer. ‘I can’t grieve, Jer, because I’m too busy trying to keep you from going too far off the deep end! I’m trying to keep Elena from jumping down your throat while you process your own grief and keep her from shutting out the world and losing herself in her writing. I’m trying to keep it together so Jenna can feel some semblance of accomplishment in this parenting thing she’s trying. I am trying to be the big sister here. How can I possibly make time for my own grief when I am so busy keeping everyone else’s from drowning them?’

And then she was storming away.

She knew she should turn back, that the threat was still out there, but she was just a girl. A girl who had lost her parents. For the moment, that’s all she wanted to be. No magic. No vampires. Just a grieving girl. She threw herself down next to the nearest tree, resting her back against its trunk, and drew her legs up to her chest. Tears slipped from her eyes as she buried her face in her knees to muffle her sobs.

Her phone buzzed again.

_Alcohol, Lolita? And here I thought you were a good girl._

Cali rolled her eyes but there was a small smile tugging at her lips as she replied.

_Sorry, dad._

His reply was instantaneous: _Dad? Does that mean I get to punish you for being naughty, Lolita?_

Okay. That escalated quickly. Dropping her phone in her lap, she pressed her hands to her blushing cheeks and didn’t know how to respond. How did _anyone_ respond to a text like that? He probably didn’t mean it to sound provocative in any way, but she couldn’t help the shiver of lust that shot through at the thoughts his words invoked. Despite the sudden naughtiness of her thoughts she didn’t reply to Nik’s message. Far too inexperienced to even give voice to the desires that train of thought had unlocked and too self-conscious to play dumb. It was safer just to ignore him and hope it would never be brought up again.

Too bad Nik didn’t seem to get the message, her phone buzzed a few minutes later, and with hesitant fingers, she opened the message.

_And now you’re probably wondering just how I would punish you, love. I promise you that you’d enjoy it._

The arrogant fucker was playing her. He had to be and it pissed her off to no end, she rolled her eyes and tapped out her reply.

_I’m sorry, I don’t remember trying out for the cheerleading squad._

His reply came not a moment later.

_I bet you’d look so preppy in the uniform though. What unfortunate animal has the honour of being your school’s mascot?_

Apparently, he was over teasing her for now, and she was grateful for it. Anything of that variety was uncharted territory for her, even when she was the girl-who-lived, relationships hadn’t been much of a factor in her life. It just wasn’t a main priority to her then and it wasn’t now. Her focus was on keeping her magic secret, her family safe, and excelling in art.

_Mystic Falls High, home of the Timberwolves. Go team._

She actually loved the fact that their school mascot was a wolf, it reminded her of Remus, Sirius and little Teddy. Often her drawings featured the animals howling at the moon in a forest overlooking a familiar castle, but only when she was feeling melancholy.

_I feel the team spirit oozing from your words, love._

She laughed at Nik’s response but was stopped from replying at the sound of her sister’s cries for help. Dammit, she’d forgotten the entire reason behind coming to the stupid party in the first place. She shoved her phone in her pocket and ran back the gazebo in time to see Vicki placed on one the many picnic tables dotted about the area. People crowd her instantly, despite Matt’s insistence that every back off and give her space, but there was enough of a gap for Cali to see the blood on her neck.

An innocuous wound if not for the knowledge she held.

She caught sight of Stefan quickly backing away on the other side of the group and chased after him, using her magic to quicken her steps to catch up to him. He was caught off guard when she rounded a tree before him and stopped him in his tracks.

‘We need to talk,’ she said seriously.

‘I’m a little busy,’ he responded stiffly, looking everywhere but at her, and she knew he was fighting with himself. The very fact that he was struggling with his baser instincts told her it wasn’t him that hurt Vicki, that it must have been the blue-eyed vampire she’d seen in her vision, and she calmed the anger that flooded her.

‘Shall we stop pretending to play the we’re both normal humans game, Stefan?’ she asked softly before repeating her earlier statement. ‘We need to talk.’

He gave her a long calculating look, obviously assessing whether it was she who hurt Vicki tonight. She huffed and rolled her eyes.

‘I’m not a vampire,’ she stated, ‘but you know that already and if I’d have wanted to harm Vicki, it would not have been that obvious. Whoever it was clearly wanted to send a message and it was clearly meant for the only other vampire in town.’

‘Fine,’ he agreed tightly. ‘Let’s talk, but not here.’

He stalked past her and she followed him. He led her to his car and drove her to the Boarding House on the edge of town, the stately home had always fascinated her as a child, once she’d even snuck inside and played hide and seek with Caroline until Zach had found them and called the Sheriff. The lecture she’d received from her mum about sneaking into people’s homes had made certain she’d never trespassed again and now it felt strange to enter with an invite.

Luckily, Zach was sleeping when they entered.

‘You know about vampires,’ Stefan stated as he closed the door on his bedroom, she sat on his desk chair and watched him carefully. ‘You knew it from the moment I first bumped into you. Why did you not say anything?’

‘I’ve been taught to kill vampires,’ she answered casually. ‘The moment my hand touched yours you knew I was different too, didn’t you?’

He nodded, his brow furrowed. ‘I don’t know exactly what you are, but you’re powerful. And your blood…’ he trailed off and she saw the bloodlust rise in his eyes before he shook it off. ‘When I’m not touching you it’s fine, it’s like you have no scent at all, but that brief touch it was like I could taste ambrosia.’

‘It’s my magic,’ she responded carefully, extending an olive branch and choosing to trust the vampire before her. No one got anywhere without someone trusting someone first. ‘Only one other person knows about my magic, Stefan,’ she was the very epitome of serious, ‘no one else can know, do you understand me? You felt it, you understand its draw, I work very hard to keep the scent of my blood undetectable. The only reason you felt it at all was because I wasn’t expecting you to be a vampire.’

‘Elena doesn’t know?’ he questioned surprised.

‘No, none of my family do,’ she told him. ‘There is only one person in this world with magic like mine, me. What do you think would happen should knowledge of that get out?’

‘You would be hunted,’ he surmised. To be killed, used, or put on display, it didn’t matter. People would seek her out for their own deeds, putting her family at risk. She nodded.

‘And now vampires have returned to Mystic Falls, threatening the very careful life that has been built to protect that secret,’ she said.

He looked troubled, guilty and anguished. ‘I will not leave,’ he said firmly.

‘You cannot,’ she agreed. ‘You stepping foot in this town has marked the beginning of a change I cannot see the ending to yet. All I know is that you are a part of it.’

‘What do you mean?’ he asked, the tension in the room rising to an almost deafening crescendo of silent anticipation. He leant forwards, his eyes awash with roiling emotion too shifting to make one distinct from the other.

‘My magic allows me to see the future,’ she told him. ‘Sometimes I draw it. The morning before I met you, I drew you, I knew your face before I knew you. Sometimes I see them. I saw the woods tonight, I knew something was going to happen. You being here is a catalyst for all the events to come.’

She couldn’t believe she didn’t make that connection before, but now that she had, it was clear as day. The drawing of Stefan sitting in a sketchbook on her desk had marked the beginning. The blue-eyed killer, Elena’s lookalike, the wolf, they were all connected to Stefan and the events that were creeping up on them were to happen because he chose Mystic Falls to call home.

‘And what is to come?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know, nothing is clear to me yet,’ she sighed. ‘I will keep looking. Why did you come to Mystic Falls?’

He sucked in a breath and grew reluctant, but she had trusted him with her secret, had let him into her circle, and he had no choice but to return the favour. ‘I had to know her,’ he said softly, so quietly she almost couldn’t hear him.

‘Elena?’ she asked, a stray thought coming to her mind, ‘what is so special about my sister?’

‘ _Everything_ ,’ Stefan stressed imploringly.

Perhaps the vampire wasn’t the catalyst, it was her sister. The thoughts sent a cold hand of dread through her system like she’d never felt before. Because if it was her sister that was smack bang in the middle of these events then there was nothing in the world that could stop her from using her magic to save her. She’d lost one family, two sets of parents, she would not lose her sister too.


	3. The Night of the Comet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cali is disturbed in more ways than one, the kid gloves are off, Disney is an epidemic, and stakes might need sharpening.

It was way too early to be awake, on a normal day she’d be fast asleep until her alarm clock forced her into wakefulness, but she was beginning to get the feeling that her normal days were over. Especially when she was finally able to focus enough to actually _look_ at what she had sketched. A man dangled from a tree, his limp form lifeless and mangled, blood flowed down his body and dripped from his hand onto the tent beneath him. She could almost picture the scene in her mind. A couple waiting for the comet to pass over them, romantic and eager for the show, he was going to propose. He was just waiting for the comet to be directly above them but he’d left the ring in his car, so he’d had to dash back, it was his final move.

Just a little to the left of the tent, his would-be wife stood staring in horror at the scene before her, mouth open in a silent scream her pencil couldn’t produce but the terror on her face was almost palpable. She was dead too, Cali knew this. She’d fled. Almost made it to the car, but she didn’t have the keys, her boyfriend did and he was strung from the trees. Only the car beeped open and her fear intensified to an all-consuming paralysing numbness and then she was dead. Killed by the blue-eyed vampire.

It made her sick to her stomach and she threw the sketchbook away from her in disgust. As much as she loved drawing, it was both a blessing and curse. What was the point of showing her this? These people were beyond help now, they were already dead before she’d started drawing them, there was no need to torture herself like this. But with her connection to Death, it was unavoidable. Death was all knowing, all powerful, and inevitable. It was he who gave her these visions, who allowed her glimpses into the future to choose who she could save from his clutches, and mock her with those she could not by showing her the past. Being Death’s master was akin to being Death’s slave.

Though she’d never conversed with the figure himself, he was there nonetheless, watching, waiting, and knew that she would come face to face with him sooner or later. It was not a meeting she was looking forward to.

Sighing, she got ready for school and tried to put the couple that would never get married to the back of her mind. When she was done, she found Elena and Jenna on the landing and took a moment to assess how happy her sister looked. It was part of the reason why she hadn’t done any serious damage to Stefan last night, she’d even encouraged him to come over and speak to Elena – they’d stayed up late just talking – he was good for her. Elena would need someone to rely on in the coming months if she truly was the centre of the shit-storm coming their way, and Cali would be busy trying to protect her from it. She couldn’t play the protector and the advocate at the same time all the time.

Stefan, it seemed, was genuine in his pursuit of Elena and she was content to leave it be for now. But the moment it looked dodgy, she’d be on it like a house on fire. There was no need to warn him, he’d gotten a taste of her power when he touched her. Whatever they’d talked about last night had given Elena a new perspective and Cali was glad of it.

‘I don’t know,’ she cut across their conversation. ‘Boozy housewife completes that whole soccer mom picture, right? Isn’t that what we’re aiming for here? Not the sexy flight attendant that you want to have a quickie with in the bathroom mid-flight.’ Instantly, they both looked outraged at her comment and she laughed at them. ‘Relax,’ she told them, passing them by on her way down stairs, ‘I’m just kidding.’

She heard Elena ask about Jeremy and sighed internally. He had already left the house to visit Vicki before school, she should no doubt do the same just to make sure the girl wouldn’t go screaming vampire through the town, but the less her magic was involved the better. Besides, Vicki was a message for Stefan, she’d told him as such, and she was no longer the girl-who-lived. There would be no running head first into battle, that wasn’t who she was anymore. Stefan could handle it and if he wanted help then he could ask.

Though she hadn’t outright offered, she’d told him about her magic for a reason.

School, it turned out, was relatively normal. A surprise considering last night’s party didn’t go so well, but then Vicki was the town druggy, and care for drug addicts who weren’t going anywhere wasn’t at an all-time high. The buzz was for the comet and tomorrow’s celebrations, small towns never missed a chance to celebrate even the most minor of occasions, and Cali couldn’t help but look forward to each and every one.

It was one of the few things she enjoyed with her mother.

She caught up to Caroline and Bonnie between classes, leaving her sister to go all dewy eyed over Stefan alone.

‘I’m confused,’ Caroline was saying. ‘Are you psychic, or clairvoyant?’

Ah, this again. Cali knew Bonnie didn’t believe anything her grams had been saying about witchcraft but she would. Sheila had a way of making even the most stubborn of people see things her way. ‘Technically, Grams says I’m a witch,’ Bonnie said. ‘My ancestors were these really cool Salem witch chicks or something. Grams tried to explain it all, but she was looped on the liquor so I kinda tuned out. Crazy family, yes. Witches? I don’t think so.’

‘Sheila is an amazing woman, Bonnie,’ Cali said defensively. ‘Perhaps you should give her a chance. Listen to her, let her show you what she’s talking about, she’s taught me plenty of things.’

‘You buy into this whole witchcraft thing?’ Caroline asked and she nodded, ‘yeah, well, feel free to conjure up the name and number of that guy from last night.’

‘What guy?’ she asked, confused.

‘Cali wasn’t with us, where did you disappear to, by the way?’ Bonnie asked, before turning back to Caroline. ‘I didn’t see him either, you did. Why did you just talk to him?’

‘I was drunk,’ Caroline huffed.

‘And I went home,’ Cali answered with a half-truth, not willing to risk Caroline’s jealousy should she admit she went to Stefan’s. Especially when she wouldn’t be able to tell them what they discussed and Caroline was already planning a wedding. Boy, was she in for heartbreak when she finally realised Stefan was far too into Elena already. But they’d been down that road before. It was the unspoken tension hiding behind their friendship. When the bell rang after lunch they promised to meet up at the Grill after school, she went ahead to her AP English Lit class.

She stopped by the art store on the way to the Grill to buy some spray paints in varying shades of pinks, blues and greens, and threw them in the boot of her car along with the other paint supplies already inside. Ideally, she shouldn’t be going to the Grill, but she couldn’t ignore her friends in favour of her work no matter how much she wanted to.

‘Hey,’ she said as she dropped into a chair at the table the guys had chosen, instantly a cheeseburger and basket of fries were placed before her and she shot her sister a thankful look. ‘Sorry I’m late.’

‘You went to go pick up supplies, right?’ Elena asked. ‘For the mural?’

‘Yeah,’ she nodded and ate a fry. ‘I’m hoping to get it done tonight, it’s just the finishing touches that need doing. Then I will be free to enjoy the comet tomorrow.’

‘I don’t understand what the big deal is,’ Caroline huffed. ‘It’s just a big ball of space rock.’

‘Eons ago, people took them as signs from gods,’ Cali said, ‘an answer to a prayer. A sign of something. An awakening.’

‘Well,’ Bonnie added. ‘I was talking to Grams, and she said the comet is a sign of impending doom. The last time it passed over Mystic Falls, there was lots of death. So much blood and carnage, it created a bed of paranormal activity.’

It was true. Ever since the comet appeared in the sky, her magic had been thrumming with a need to be released, it was a constant urge she had to quell. Witches of this world channelled such events. Her magic just wanted to be used and that was dangerous.

‘Yeah,’ Caroline rolled her eyes. ‘and then you poured Grams another shot and she told you about the aliens.’ She turned her attention to Elena. ‘So, then what?’

Bristled at the lack of respect shown towards such a powerful witch, she stuffed her mouth with the cheeseburger lest she say something she might later regret. Caroline didn’t mean to be overly rude, it was just the way she was, but sometimes she grated on Cali’s last nerve. It was why she needed to hang out with Maria.

‘So then nothing,’ Elena replied and Cali was confused before she realised that this was a continuation of a conversation she’d joined halfway through.

‘You and Stefan talked all night?’ Ah, that cleared things up. ‘There was no sloppy first kiss or touchy feely of any kind?’

‘Nope, we didn’t go there,’ Elena said with mild exasperation that everyone eventually had when dealing with Caroline.

‘Not even a handshake? I mean, Elena, we are your friends. Okay? You are supposed to share the smut!’

‘I’m the sister!’ she quickly interrupted. ‘I shared a womb with you, I draw the line with smut… there will be no smut sharing. Thank you very much.’ Because that would be beyond gross.

‘We just talked for hours,’ Elena laughed and playfully shoved her shoulder. Cali grinned and threw a fry at her.

‘Okay, what is with the blockage? Just jump his bones already!’ Caroline really had sex on the brain, she was the very definition of horny teenager. ‘Okay, it’s easy. Boy like girl, girl likes boy, sex!’

‘Profound,’ Elena muttered distantly, as though something Caroline had said had gotten through to her and made her come to some big decision. Sure enough, she got up.

‘Where are you going?’ Bonnie asked.

‘Caroline’s right.’ Elena declared. ‘It is easy. If I sit here long enough, I’ll end up talking myself out of it instead of doing what I started the day saying what I was going to do.’

‘If it ends in sex then please leave out the details,’ she called after her sister. ‘I love you, El, but there is such a thing as sharing too much!’

Bonnie and Caroline laughed at Elena’s embarrassed affronted look, Cali just grinned and waved her sister out the door. Though Caroline’s sudden eagerness for the Elena and Stefan relationship was odd, Cali couldn’t be happier for it, she had far too many experiences with helping a heartbroken Caroline get over some slight Elena had unknowingly caused. Everyone saw Elena before they saw Caroline. It happened with Cali too, but she wasn’t as vain or self-absorbed as the blonde, and it slid right off her back. Elena was the social butterfly, Cali was the artistic introvert. After a life spent in the spotlight as the saviour, she liked the relative solitude of being the other Gilbert girl.

She lingered only long enough to finish her food. ‘Ladies, I’d love to stay and gossip,’ she declared when she was done, ‘but there are children just dying to see their mural completed.’

The commission had taken four weeks to complete already, she was loathed to keep the children from it any longer, but with the kids’ ideas ever changing she’d had to keep adapting it. Eventually they’d settled for some heroic quest with a few additions thrown in. The girls demanded a castle and a princess, the boys a dragon and a knight, and she’d thrown in a forest with woodland creatures for them to spot, a few constellations for them to learn about, and flowers. Mythological creatures were mixed into the everyday inhabitants of the woods. Overall, she had grown quite fond of it.

She had only a few more details to add and the put a final coat of weather resistant lacquer on it – and a layer of magic – to preserve it. Then the kids would be able to enjoy it.

 It took her three hours from when she arrived to finish it and the sun was just beginning to set as she cast her magic over the piece, it looked stunning. A vibrant mix of acrylics that created a vivid image of the knight slaying the dragon to save his princess, aided by the creatures of the forest, to find their happily ever after in the castle that looked a lot like Hogwarts. The head councillor of the home was very impressed and demanded she be paid for her work but she refused. She’d done it to help the children, not fuel her income, in the hopes of one day inspiring them as she had been inspired. Plus, she had a soft spot for orphans.

It was only as an afterthought that she snapped a photo and sent it to Nik with a follow up message telling him it was her first mural commission. She was immensely proud of it. He rang her not five minutes later as she was walking to her car.

‘I thought you didn’t graffiti, love,’ he drawled and she was ashamed to admit the butterflies that swam in her stomach at the sound of the British lilt. God, it had been so long since she heard that accent.

She laughed. ‘I don’t,’ she answered. ‘It was a mural for a children’s home just outside of my town.’

‘A likely story,’ he murmured, ‘sounds a bit too convenient to me.’

‘Right, because I go around spray painting princesses onto the side of buildings in my spare time,’ she couldn’t keep the amusement out of her voice.

‘I think someone had a bit too much Disney in their childhood,’ Nik accused lightly.

‘Alert the government,’ she said dryly, ‘stop the production of Disney films before it becomes an epidemic.’

His laughter filtered through the phone and it sent those damned butterflies scattering through her stomach. ‘What happened last night, love?’

‘What do you mean?’ she asked confused.

‘You just stopped replying,’ he clarified and she suddenly remembered that she never responded to his text.

‘Oh,’ she muttered, ‘I didn’t mean to ignore you. My stoner brother’s drug addicted hook-up got herself attacked by a wild animal at the party. Created a mild panic that sent everyone home. I completely forgot to text you back.’

‘Sounds like quite the party,’ he chuckled, ‘and quite the family drama.’

‘He thinks he loves her,’ she sighed, ‘he might for all I know. I’m not exactly an expert on the matter. But she doesn’t love him. Not when she just uses him to get pills and desperately tries to get with Tyler. It just pisses me off that he can’t see that.’

‘Love blinds you, sweetheart,’ he said almost gently.

‘So do drugs,’ she muttered scathingly making him chuckle.

‘That too,’ he agreed and they fell silent for a moment before he spoke up again. ‘It was a beautiful mural, love, despite the childish subject matter.’

‘It was _for_ children,’ she rolled her eyes. ‘I was hardly going to go all Picasso, was I? Besides, they wanted a princess and a dragon.’

‘You certainly gave them what they wanted,’ he said amusedly, ‘but the technique is almost flawless. You weren’t kidding when you said you enjoyed spray paints.’

It occurred to her then that this was the most normal thing she was going to have in a long while and she was suddenly very grateful for Nik. ‘Hey,’ she said softly.

‘Yes?’ he answered, sounding a little confused.

‘Thank you,’ she said earnestly.

‘Whatever for?’ he laughed.

‘Being normal,’ she replied.

He laughed louder at that, an honest surprised laugh that told her he hadn’t been expecting that answer from her. ‘Believe me, love, I am anything but normal.’

‘Maybe not,’ definitely not if she was right in thinking he might be a vampire. ‘But you represent a part of my life that is normal. I might have only spoken to you three times, but each time it’s been centred around art and I like that. My life is a little topsy-turvy right now and I have this strange feeling it’s only going to get worse. Art is normal. You’re art, you’re normal.’

‘Well, then,’ he sounded somewhat gentle, as though he hadn’t quite expected her gratitude and didn’t know what to do with it. ‘you’re welcome, love. Listen, I have business to attend to, but I will see you Saturday, yeah?’

‘Oh, sure! I will see you then, bye.’

Whether he actually had business to see to, or she had made him uncomfortable with her sudden thanks, it made her feel somewhat awkward after the call had ended. It was all well and good him teasing her last night, but she was no good with genuine emotion, and she was beginning to feel like a little kid with a crush on the cool older brother of a friend.

Disregarding her feelings entirely – she barely knew the guy, she was just being stupid because he liked art – she threw her phone in her bag and made her way home.

She’d taken one step inside the house only to be greeted with the recently developing Stefan drama with the latest update on the Jeremy front. Elena was fretting because she’d met the older brother who had told her that she was basically a rebound, and the tension between the brothers was so thick it could only mean raging family issues. Of course, her sister calmed when Cali carefully pointed out that she was just beginning to get to know Stefan and it wasn’t yet time for the exes and estranged family members talk. And she would be dealing with Jeremy in the morning, or try to at least. It was time to take a hands-on approach.

When she got to her bedroom, she found Stefan sat on her bed, wringing his hands nervously and threw up a silencing charm. ‘A little warning would have been nice,’ she snapped at him.

‘We never exchanged numbers,’ he shrugged apologetically. ‘Can they hear us?’

‘No, I silenced the room,’ she answered, throwing her bag into the corner of the room. ‘So, your brother… am I to assume he is the reason behind Vicki’s attack?’

Stefan nodded. ‘Damon… he’s playing a game with me, I just don’t know what.’

‘Katherine,’ she told him easily enough. ‘It’s always about a girl.’

He gave a bitter laugh and ran a hand over his face. ‘Damon always was obsessed with her, more so than I ever was. He loved her, she loved me.’

‘Love blinds us,’ she mumbled, repeating Nik’s earlier words, and groaned. ‘He’s toying with you out of petty spite. And now my sister, who looks exactly like her, is going to get caught in the crossfire.’

‘No,’ Stefan shook his head adamantly. ‘I won’t let him anywhere near her. I will protect her.’

‘The only reason I’m letting you within a ten-foot radius of her is because I haven’t seen her smile like she did this morning in a very long time. If your brother threatens her in any way and I feel you haven’t dealt with him properly enough, I will take the matter into my own hands, and I will not hesitate to stake him.’

He nodded but a pained look crossed his face as he accepted her words.

‘As a last resort, Stefan,’ she reiterated. ‘Let’s not let it get that far, yeah? I do not relish in the thoughts of killing, no matter the species.’

‘Is it worth it?’ he asked her, fixing her with a piercing look, and she knew he wanted a glimpse into his future. For her to tell him that it was all happily ever afters complete with castles and the princess.

‘I haven’t seen the endgame, I told you this yesterday,’ she frowned at him. ‘If you want me to tell you this is going to be easy, I can’t. This is uncharted territory. It’s going to be hard and we’re going to feel like giving up at times. But love, pure love, is always worth the fight, Stefan. Always.’

He left not long after exchanging numbers with her, her words seeming to give him courage, and she got ready for bed.

At least now she had a name for the blue-eyed vampire. Damon Salvatore. She wondered just what his endgame was in Mystic Falls, she had a feeling it had a lot to do with the vampire Stefan said was sealed away beneath the town. Because people did crazy things for love. But how he was going to accomplish that without a willing witch was beyond her, no witch in their right mind would help a vampire. Cali certainly wouldn’t.

She woke early the following morning, showered quickly, threw on some clothes and stormed into her brother’s room with purpose. He startled when she yanked his headphones from his head, her hand a tight-fisted grip on his hoodie, and pulled him out of the house. Much to the wide-eyed shock and bemusement of Jenna and Elena.

‘What the hell, Cali!?’ he protested as she shoved him into her car.

‘Shut up,’ she snapped and got behind the wheel.

The cemetery loomed before them like some haunted film set from a B-Movie, she paid no mind to the shivers that ran down her spine as she crossed the hallowed ground. No, she was here for a purpose, ignoring the souls of the dead had to do for now. Being who she was made cemetery’s a dodgy place for her. When she was eight, she was possessed by the ghost of a grandma who was afraid she’d left the stove on before her death, and wouldn’t let her go until she was sure her house hadn’t burnt down. It had been an awful experience being trapped inside her own body.

Of course, she could control it now, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed feeling the spirits of the dead.

When the headstones of her parents came into her line of sight, she pushed her brother down beside them and sat next to him. Her lips pursed, knowing what she was going to say next was harsh, but it had to be said, Jeremy had to hear them.

‘I miss them, Jer, I miss them so much it hurts, but I’m not going to stop living my life because they’re gone. They’re dead. They don’t care if you want to get high. They don’t care if you want to fuck Vicki Donovan until the world ends. They don’t care if you want to screw up your life. They are dead.’

‘Brilliant pep talk,’ he muttered sourly.

‘It’s not a pep talk,’ she said. ‘A few months ago, I buried my mom and dad on the same day. With the way you’re going, I’m going to bury you right alongside them in the coming months. So go right ahead, what do you care,’ she stood up. ‘You’ll be dead too.’

And she walked away, leaving him to the ghosts of their parents, and the thoughts no doubt circulating in his mind. Had she the time or the patience, she would have been gentler, worked through the issues he had, and been the reliant big sister. But she didn’t. There were bigger fish to fry and Jeremy had gone beyond her kind words and kid glove treatment.

She had agreed to hand out programmes with Caroline, Bonnie and Elena for the festival that night. Though if anyone didn’t know when or what the festival was by now, they lived under a rock, it was a small town after all. But still, it was good to volunteer for town events and looked great on a college application.

Elena and Bonnie stood in the square handing out the programmes, the gentle exasperation and knowing look on the budding witch’s face told her the topic of conversation. Cali turned from Bonnie’s gaze with a smile and shot Stefan a quick text telling him to get his arse in gear and give Elena his damn number already. It was beginning to stress everyone out. Was every relationship this awkward?

She rolled her eyes and continued handing out programmes to everyone who passed her by, it was easy to settle into a monotonous routine, until an arm around her waist startled her.

‘I’ll take one of those,’ Tyler whispered into her ear, his other hand reaching out to pluck one of the programmes from her stack.

Great. Just what she needed. ‘Get lost, Tyler,’ she wriggled her way out of his arm and levelled him with a glare.

‘Don’t be like that,’ he grinned at her. ‘You coming tonight?’

‘No, I’m just handing out programmes as some sort of reverse protest,’ she deadpanned. ‘Of course, I’m going.’

‘We can go together,’ he declared. ‘Watch the comet,’ he stepped closer to her, ‘it’ll be real romantic.’

Taking a leaf out of Caroline’s descriptive book, she gave him a look full of distaste. ‘Watching a hunk of space rock fly through the sky? Real romantic.’

He chuckled and shrugged. ‘Fine,’ his smile turned goofy. ‘We can skip the comet entirely and go straight to my house.’

‘Wow,’ she muttered. ‘You really don’t understand the concept of rejection, do you?’

‘Girls don’t say no to me,’ he told her cockily.

She shook her head in disbelief, she got that he was the mayor’s son, a football player, and ridiculously hot, but was that really all it took these days? Was her gender really that shallow? ‘Look, Tyler, I’m sure underneath that jackass arrogance you cling to, there’s a really nice guy,’ she stated. ‘But until you stop thinking the whole world should bow down to you, I’m not even interested in being friends with you.’

It was the truth. She’d seen Tyler’s personality before in Draco Malfoy and knew enough to know it was an act. It made her wonder just what his home life was like. Draco had a strained relationship with his father, there was so much expectation to live up to as the son of the heir of one of the oldest families. Was it the same for the mayor’s kid? Tyler had big shoes to fill and she suddenly felt a boat load of sympathy for him.

Tyler gave her a shocked look as she stalked past him, turning to follow her silently with his eyes as she went, and she wondered if anyone had seen his act for what it was before. Just an act put on to hide the true feelings going on beneath the surface. Now that she’d made the connection to the boy from her past life, she couldn’t un-see it, and it made her sad to think her two lives were so damn similar.

‘Now that was unnecessarily cruel,’ a voice drawled out of the alley between an antics shop and the book shop. ‘The poor kid was just vying for your affections.’

A figure stepped out of the shadows, one she would have called a stranger if not for the minor similarity to Stefan, the striking blue eyes and the familiar lapis lazuli ring adorning his finger. She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘You must be the brother,’ she said coldly. ‘Stefan’s told me all about you.’

He glared at her. ‘You must be the twin.’

‘I’d say it’s a pleasure, but that would be a lie,’ she told him, inclining her head in his direction. ‘I’ve things to do before tonight, so, please, excuse me.’ There was a confidence to her steps, as there always was, and she was aware of his gaze upon her. Halting halfway down the street, she murmured quietly, well aware he would still hear her. ‘Oh, and, Damon, do try not to get up to too much mischief, I’d hate to have to put a stake through your heart.’

Once the programmes were handed out, it was time to hand out the candles. They were delicate little things, a single white candlestick with a paper tray to catch the melted wax, and as flimsy as it came. A pointless addition to a really pointless festival but it brought the town together nonetheless. She lit hers with a barely a thought and moved on to light others with her own flame, moving around the square with ease, protecting her flame with her hand. Peripherally, she was aware of Stefan and Elena talking, but when her sister blew out her candle and walked away moments later she assumed it didn’t go well.

Stefan’s eyes met hers across the square and he quickly made his way over. He ran his hand through his hair in exasperation and she grinned at the overly human gesture. ‘She gave me the cold shoulder,’ he revealed.

‘Of course, she did,’ Cali said. ‘She doesn’t know anything about you, Stefan, let alone where you want to go with her. And then she meets your brother and finds out you have a, to her, recent ex-girlfriend. You just need to be as honest as you can be with her. Let her get to know you.’ Was she really giving dating advice to vampire born in the 1800s? Cali had never dated a guy but she understood the mind of a teenage girl, she supposed. ‘Keep trying. Elena likes you.’

And that’s all she had to say on the matter. While Caroline and Bonnie might be eager to hear about Elena’s love life, she wasn’t. There was just some things that were kept a secret between family members. Stefan gave her a smile, his gaze shifting towards the Grill where Elena had gone, and she knew he wanted to follow but over a hundred years of existence had taught him that appearing overly needy was never attractive. He managed to hold off on following her and she gave him kudos for that.

A sudden gust of wind blew their flames out, startling them both from their thoughts, and they both looked down to their respective candles. A muttered spell had their flames flickering back to life and Stefan shot her a panicked look.

‘Should you be doing that?’ he asked worriedly, looking about him to see if anyone had caught her.

‘I’ve been doing magic openly since I was three, no one has caught on yet,’ she told him.

‘I thought magic showed itself in witches during puberty,’ he said curiously.

‘Usually,’ she nodded. ‘Exceptions are made for only the most powerful of witches, but even then, you’ll never find a witch like me in this world.’

It was actually nice to be able to speak of her magic so casually. Dad had always treated it as something to be hidden away, he didn’t understand it so couldn’t understand her when she spoke of it. Sheila was afraid of it, no matter how hard she tried to keep the feeling from showing, and it made her hesitant to discuss Cali’s true potential.

He opened his mouth to question her more, but Matt’s arrival stopped any questions of her magic from coming forth, instead he grimaced but settled into a neutral expression seconds later.

‘Hey,’ Matt greeted as he stepped beside them.

‘Hey,’ Stefan returned.

Awkward. Past bae and future bae and the sister of the love interest, it sounded like a romantic comedy where she played the side kick. Cali didn’t relish the thoughts. ‘What’s up, Matt?’ she asked to get to the point and to keep the macho peacocking to a minimum.

‘Have you seen my sister?’ he asked impatiently, his eyes darting around the square, as if hoping to see Vicki there. ‘I can’t find her anywhere.’

_Have you checked the cemetery?_ She almost asked, knowing full well that was where the druggies hung out, but that would be cruel and Matt was far to kind for that. ‘She hasn’t passed us,’ Cali told him gently. ‘I haven’t seen her all day, and I’ve been out here helping out with the festival.’

‘We’ll keep an eye out though,’ Stefan promised in the same gentle manner she had, no doubt he was feeling just as sorry for Matt. He grabbed her arm, turned them both away and would have walked them off, had Matt not stopped them.

‘Hey,’ he halted them, ‘I saw you at the hospital yesterday.’

Stefan stiffened only momentarily before adopting a neutral expression. ‘Did you?’

Of course, she realised, he’d gone to clean up his brother’s mess and had done so sloppily if Matt was catching him in the act.

‘What were you doing there?’ Matt asked suspiciously, and she wondered if Vicki had managed to tell him the truth of her attack.

‘He was picking me up,’ she answered easily enough. ‘I had a bad episode with my head and had to see my doctor, I called Stefan to pick me up because Bonnie drove Elena into school and I didn’t think it was fair to make her come out to the hospital. Plus, Stefan owed me one. He bet me I couldn’t eat a whole plateful of mega chilli cheese fries.’

It was common knowledge her childhood had been rife with migraines and headaches that more often than not saw her visiting the hospital, a side effect of her visions until she learned to control them – such as they could be controlled – and the pain lessened to a manageable degree. A relapse wasn’t so uncommon an occurrence and Matt bought the lie easily enough.

‘We’ll ask around for you,’ Stefan said politely, his smile fixed firmly in place, but his head was tilted to the side as though he was listening to something, his glaze flitted to the building just to their left. A brief look of panic crossed his eyes, too swift for Matt to pick up, but just long enough for her to see it. She narrowed her eyes at the building.

Matt left reluctantly and Stefan lingered only long enough to give her a pleading look, one that asked her not to interfere, and she acquiesced with a nod of her head. Stefan could handle Damon, until she saw fit to interfere, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to watch.

Cloaking herself, she apparated onto the rooftop silently to watch the interaction between the brothers. Vicki stood between the brothers, panicking and trying to free herself from Damon’s tight grip on her, Stefan watched with angered caution.

‘Let her go,’ he warned.

She almost sighed, it was a clichéd phrase, didn’t Stefan watch horror movies? Damon predictably did the bad guy thing and pulled Vicki over the edge of the roof, holding her by the arm, toying with his brother who reacted as every hero did. Damon laughed at Stefan’s panic, tugging Vicki back to safety and throwing her at his brother.

‘Relax,’ he drawled with a roll of his pretty blue eyes, ‘I don’t need her dead, but you might,’ something sinister lingered in his smirk as he caught Vicki’s gaze. ‘What attacked you the other night?’

He was trying to break Stefan’s compulsion.

Stefan’s choice of diet left his powers as a vampire weak, it took only Damon’s cajoling for Vicki to think hard and break the compulsion that was placed around her mind, the moment she did, she screamed vampire and began to freak out. Looking horrified between the brothers as screams left her mouth. Damon reached out quickly and grabbed the sides of her head with his hands to force eye contact between them.

‘Stefan Salvatore did this to you,’ he compelled her.

‘Stefan Salvatore did this to me,’ she repeated dutifully.

‘He’s a vampire,’ he continued, revelling in his control, ‘A vicious, murderous monster.’

‘Please, Damon,’ Stefan pleaded. ‘Please don’t do this.’

‘If you couldn’t fix it before,’ Damon gloated as he released Vicki, ‘I don’t know what you can do now.’

He laughed as he pulled off Vicki’s bandage, revealing the bloody wound beneath the gauze, and threw her at Stefan once more. She screamed as Stefan caught her and struggled with himself over the blood so openly on display, but he turned away from it and glared at his brother.

‘Ugh,’ Damon sneered in disgust, ‘your choice of lifestyle has made you weak. A couple of vampire parlous tricks is nothing compared to the power that you could have, that you now need. But you can change that. Human blood gives you that.’

‘No!’ Vicki screamed once she realised she was the human blood Damon was talking about.

‘You have two choices,’ Damon continued, ignoring Vicki entirely, ‘You can feed and make her forget, or you can let her run screaming vampires through the town square.’

‘Or,’ Cali interrupted, shedding the cloaking spells upon her form, ‘Stefan can go on living his lifestyle, I can make Vicki forget vampires exist, and you, sweetheart, can just fuck right off.’

Damon laughed at her but it cut off moments later when she caught Vicki’s gaze and wiped her memory of the rooftop and ever being bitten, instead she replaced them with something more believable. An animal attacked her in the woods and she had gotten high during her shift on pain meds and was overcome with a sudden urge to look at the stars.

Clueless to what was going on around her, Vicki grinned stupidly up at the sky. ‘They’re so pretty,’ she mumbled.

‘What the hell?’ Damon frowned, no longer so sure of himself.

‘I get that you have a score to settle with your brother,’ she stepped forwards, hands on her hips, and a glare on her face. She dropped the masking spells that kept her aura undetectable from vampire senses, allowing them both to feel the full brunt of her magical power. ‘I’m not going to pretend to know your history, nor do I want to interfere in personal matters. But I will only put up with so much shit before I start sharpening my stake, so consider yourself warned, Damon. You’re not the only one with powers and, unlike Stefan, I fully embrace mine.’

Then she was gone from the rooftop, the warning in her words clear as day, and hoping beyond hope that Damon was smart enough to understand that she wasn’t messing around. If he listened to her, she might have just saved her teacher’s life, if not… well, it was time to break out her vampire hunting gear.


End file.
